Water has such a wide variety of utilities that enumerating them would be redundancy. The efficiency of the utilization of water is closely related to its ready availability and storable condition. The present invention relates to a convenient source of water stored in a readily usable form for use over a wide temperature range without requiring protection from freezing.
Water is one of the most widely used coolants. In fact, the efficacy of water as a fire extinguishment aid is dependent on its coolant properties which are improved when the water is in a finely divided state. For this purpose wetting agents are employed. The use of water with a wetting agent added as an aid for preventing excessive dust formation during the crushing and transporting of the crushed coal by conveyor belts has improved the safety conditions at coal processing plants and steam plants.
Since water has such a large capacity for heat its usefulness as a coolant to retard reaction rates due to rises in temperature has long been recognized. The release of a large amount of water from a dry storable source is a new use that would offer numerous advantages, particularly, if the dry storable source is in a finely divided state wherein the source is flowable over a wide temperature range even at subfreezing temperatures.
Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide a source of water stored in a dry, but flowable state, whereby the water is readily released from the source when heated.
Another object of this invention is to provide a source of water which remains flowable when cooled to -196.degree. C and which can yield at least about 75 weight percent water when heated.